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Trump surpasses Obama in media accessibility

Despite alarmism over supposed challenges to First Amendment rights, President Donald Trump has proven to be more accessible than his predecessor, according to journalists assigned to the White House. In interviews with reporters conducted by Politico, media has access to Trump nearly every day.

Jonathan Karl of ABC News told Politico on Monday, “I have probably had more opportunities to ask questions of President Trump over the past two weeks than I had of President Obama during the last two years of his presidency.” For example, when the president decided to grant a press conference at the Rose Garden with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at his side, this was taken as an example of Trump's freewheeling style. “It maximizes his advantage," said a reporter to Politico. "Less time to prepare, the press is a little caught off guard.” The spectacle of reporters jostling one another and shouting questions over each other, as was the case on Monday, is “a visual that works for him.”

Politico said that the reporter said in the interview that Trump takes more questions that Obama did.

Keith Kofler, a veteran reporter who has long covered the presidency commented on his blog that this is the best situation for journalists ever since the very last days of the Clinton administration. He wrote that as his presidency waned, Bill Clinton took questions until reporters had no more to ask.